Creamware

Creamware, cream-coloured English earthenware of the second half of the 18th century and its European imitations. Staffordshire potters, experimenting in order to find a substitute for Chinese porcelain, about 1750 evolved a fine white earthenware with a rich yellowish glaze; being light in body and of clean glaze, it proved ideal for domestic ware. The cream colour was considered a fault at the time, and Wedgwood introduced a white to bluish white product called pearl ware in 1779. It was produced for nearly a century. Creamware, however, continued to be made throughout the 19th century and later.

Leeds creamware teapot decorated with green enameling and pierced work, Yorkshire, England, late 18th century; in the Victoria and Albert Museum, LondonCourtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

It was Josiah Wedgwood who laid the foundations of a great commercial success with this modestly priced utilitarian ware, made at Burslem from about 1762. Restrained designs and elegant transfer printing accorded well with his cream-glazed products. Wedgwood also attracted the patronage of Queen Charlotte, who allowed him to adopt the name Queen’s ware. His most considerable effort was a creamware dinner service of 952 pieces supplied to Catherine II the Great of Russia in 1775. Wedgwood’s most serious rival was a factory at Leeds, where identical ware was produced but with some idiosyncracies such as pierced work and green enameling. Many other English factories—Liverpool, Bristol, and Staffordshire potters among them—had turned to extensive creamware production by about 1790, and their success in both domestic and European markets brought many continental potters to the verge of bankruptcy. The latter’s imitations of the English exports were generally inferior in material, but some factories such as Creil in France, Le Nove in Italy, and Alcora in Spain allied their wares to designs of individual charm.